The Facebook Datacenter

If you’re not following the news, Facebook made their new data center designs public, as part of the open compute project initiative that is also led by Facebook.

What did they exactly do?

they basically hacked the network infrastructure, literally. changing the architecture and the way the data servers work by doing:

The Server Part:

• Changed the traditional electrical destitution system their own self-cooled power supply that used for more power efficiency. more details here. 
• Changed the chassis of the servers, I cannot count the times I wished that servers was created and built with the goal of making them easier to use and handle, FB managed to do just that with the creation of a chassis system that uses no screws and almost everything in it is slides on rails.
• Changed the Intel and AMD motherboard by removing traditional features that are not needed in the final design, which means lower power consumption and easier maintenance rates, more about Intel here and AMD here.

The Room Part:

• Changed how power is fed to the servers, more details here.
• Changed the cooling system of the data center, this is the coolest idea in my opinion because of the way it was implemented. more details here.
• Added a new battery cabinet that holds the role of providing backup power in case of a power failure. more details here.
• Joined 3 different cabinets to host the physical server with the capacity of 90 server at a time, the racks are supported by using the battery cabinet. more details here.

What’s cool about the designs is that they use less power and cost less to build, that could be a great news for all the infrastructure managers out there.

 

And so, I got an Android!

My ever first smart phone, a brand new Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830. Yes!

The decision to buy this phone did not come easily, I went into an extensive search with different criteria’s to back my decision, so far I like it very much, and I would like to share my experience with you for the greater good.

Why did I pick this phone?! lets see…

1. It was released just a week ago as part of the new Samsung Galaxy phone suit. (The Samsung Galaxy Gio S5660, Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570, and Samsung I9003 Galaxy SL) so it still unique and different from what’s available in the market.
2. Android Froyo 2.2 OS with so many applications under the hood.
3. The price tag, which less than 350 US$, a very decent price for a mid-level phone if you ask me.
4. The reasonable processor power (800 MHz), which is enough for what I want do with the phone.
5. Shape, it’s a good looking phone, admit it.

So far, I can happily say I’m satisfied with my pick. :)

 

And yes, it’s been a while…

But I’m hopefuly coming back to blogging… now that I have more time in hands and less work *cough*

What’s new? Yahoo, Microsoft and Google are still search fighting, Microsoft and Apple are Software fighting, and Microsoft, Sony are games fighting.

Encrypted, but I’ll explain more in letter blogs :)

 

Google Chrome OS and Microsoft IE OS “Gazelle”

A month ago, you’d be hearing a lot of Windows 7, new search engines being lunched on the internet and the game console wars, few chatters might arise about the “Green dam” application China developed. Now days you’d be hearing more about the browsers war “again” between Microsoft and Google.

Google VS Microsoft

Google decided to lunch something new, “Chrome OS” which is a lightweight OS for NetBook PCs. This is an interesting piece of news for many reasons.

1. First, Google is now entering what no company dared to get into, a direct competition with Microsoft huge Market Share, even though it’s only directed for the internet usage, Google might not be winning a lot of Microsoft market share just yet, but you have to admit that this is something. 
2. Second, with the reputation Google have, they’re already getting the trust and approval of media and the internet population, This will guarantee a strong launch for the OS when it comes to the market by 2010. meaning that Microsoft will need to respond to this act, News are spreading about “Microsoft Gazelle” as a response.
3. Third, If you really think of the reason why Google is stepping into the OS game, you’ll realize that Google is actually trying to change the sole idea of “Desktop OS”. In my opinion, this is a smart move, instead of going head to head with the Desktop, they’ll just invent a new idea and force others to follow.

 

I got my laptop back

So after about 3 to 4 week of waiting (I actually lost count), I finally got my laptop up and running again. This time the charger is working as it supposed to work, it charge!

More posts will be coming soon.

 

The No Laptop Experience

Living 10 days without your personal laptop is an awful thing, my laptop charger is not working, this is bad because now I can’t use my laptop to play games, download MP3s, and generate unneeded traffic on the WWW work hard and complete my tasks on time.

Let’s skip this part and take a look at the past 10 days, what happened in the world of technology?

• Apple got a New iPhone, you didn’t see that coming? Really? Where have you been?
• European Union is suing Microsoft for using Internet Explorer in Windows! All I think of is saying “lol”
• Natan is the new big thing in gaming console coming from Microsoft… umm… didn’t they hear about the Sony Eyetoy?
• Alienware officially have the best laptop on earth, I still want one for my birthday :)
• Bing is promising to kill Google with lots of mouse clicks over links generated by search queries. Come to think of it, it’s possible.

And there you go, I rest my case now.

Did I tell I say I got a replacement charger that was acting as a virus? Seriously, my laptop performed slower when the charger is plugged into the laptop, cool trick I say that might burn the CPU one day!

 

Global Warming and Power Options

In a recent study by the Global Humanitarian Forum that was published all over the news, said that over 300,000 people die in yearly basis because of global warming.

Now this is shocking and sad. People are having panic attacks because of the swine virus and no one is bothered for the death of 300,000 people. This post is nothing near solving the problem, but it’ll help spread the knowledge to IT people to try and do something about it.

I can think of three easy things to do:

1. Unplug your mobile charger if you’re not charging your mobile. it works, really.
2. Configure your network to use power saving options in a windows domain environment. This is somewhat complicated and hard to achieve in Windows XP, but the EnergyStar Organization have created a very nice package installation that allows network professionals to do that in a very easy simple steps.
3. “Please consider the environment before printing” is another simple thing that can be done when it comes to printing, so don’t print a lot and keep it digitized.

If you think about it, you will save the planet, save 300,000 people and your CTO will love you for lowering the electricity bill and you’d live happily by being a better person.

 

Alienwares M17x, The Most Powerful Laptop on Earth

Its true, Alienware made sure to include crazy hardware, enough to keep you entertained for another 10 years! this should beat anything you have ever dreamt off.

Hold your horses, the laptop is not in sale yet, but a teaser site is out to support the lunch which should happen soon, really nice stuff in there.

Alienware M17x, All Powerful

Yes, I’d like to have this for my Birth Day or any random occasion you can think of :)

 

TS Web and TS Gateway

Terminal Services Web and Terminal Services Gateway, two features in Windows 2008 Server that allows you to:

1. Access Remote Servers over SSL connections from anywhere
2. Access Published Applications on a remote server that have “Terminal Services” feature installed (Also in Windows 2008) .
3. Control and monitor access to your network from any external network based on user level and computer level.

I had trouble hosting the TS Web and TS Gateway on the same server, they just didn’t want to live together, well, let’s say I was finally able to convince them to do so, there’s a little trick to enable them to work on the same server.

There are a lot of configuration steps that I will not include in this post. after you finish installing TS Web and TS Gateway on the same machine, you will need to edit the applications settings of TS Web in IIS 7.0.

TS Web Application Settings in IIS 7.0

You will need to specify the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the TS Gateway server in the “DefaultTSGateway” value setting, instead of using the local computer name or IP, you’ll be using the FQDN that the TS Web is published on using ISA 2006. for example, if users are connecting to TS Web on “ts.test.com”, then the value must be “ts.test.com”

Happy remote access :)

 

Windows 2008 Server and Windows Vista SP2

Let’s face it, Windows 7 is still in RC, and people are already using it for daily usages (I’m one of those people), this means it’s a little bit late for Microsoft to fix things with Windows Vista, but this isn’t the case for the loyal Vista customers (if there is any) or Windows 2008 Server.

Microsoft just released the long awaited Service Pack 2 for Vista and Windows 2008 Server, both operating systems were designed to have the same kernel, which means that there will be a single setup file available for the 32bit and 64bit versions that can be installed on both operating systems.

If you’re a single user who’s just interested to have the SP on your laptop or server, then follow the links above to get it, but if you’re in need to have more information regarding the service pack installation methods and new changes or fixes, then I’d highly recommend reading the following TechNet link.

Happy installation :)